Remote mics boost hearing

By Amanda Barbur, Doctor of Audiology; Amanda’s Family Hearing

When it comes to the quality of your hearing, environment makes a significant impact.

For example, take a class I went to with my dog, Ruby. My family and I rescued this cute little ball of puppy energy last summer.

The room the classes took place in was large, with lots of sound reverberating, and, as you can imagine, plenty of barking dogs. Oftentimes the teacher was not facing us, which made it even harder to listen.

For the last class, I asked her to wear my remote microphone accessory. She clipped the tiny microphone to her shirt at the beginning of class, and I connected to the mic by pressing on my hearing aid.

What a difference! I received so much more out of the class. And it was more enjoyable because I didn’t have to struggle to hear. Remote mics are also advantageous in restaurants, one-on-one meetings, in the car and in many other situations.

Going forward with Ruby’s classes, I look forward to using this accessory.

Another situation where the effectiveness of hearing aids can be increased is to stream television directly to your hearing aids or with a TV streaming accessory. TV is one of the toughest things for people with hearing loss to decipher. In many cases, the sound comes from the back of the television, so it can reverberate around the walls and literally get lost before it reaches your ears.

And for crystal clear hearing with telephone calls, a small phone accessory can connect you to any phone or other device with Bluetooth, such as your computer.

I hope anyone with hearing aids feels free to make an appointment and let us demonstrate these game-changing accessories to get the most bang for their buck.

Amanda’s Family Hearing is located at 1701 Mentor Avenue, Suite 5, in Painesville. Financing options are available. Call 440-357-4327 or visit AmandasFamilyHearing.com for more information.